Complete the worksheet with a substantive response to each prompt. Define each term using the course textbooks or a peer-reviewed resource. Describe how you, as a BSN student, demonstrate each value as you interact with patients and other health care providers. Provide specific examples of how your values influence your attitudes and behaviors. Each response must be 100 to 150 words.
Altruism is one significant characteristic and attribute of the nursing profession. Altruism is defined as showing concern or feelings for other’s welfare, instead of just for oneself (Johnson, Haigh, & Yayes-Bolton, 2007). A person who is altruistic is involved for not doing these actions for personal rewards or gains, but volunteers to help for their own personal fulfillment to helping others without their recognition. Attributes in altruistic nurses are compassion, generosity, and caring. This is one characteristic of a nurse that exhibits professional ethical actions and behaviors toward patients, families, and colleagues in the workplace.
When nurses are acting in a caring, compassionate, and non-selfish manner toward patients and co-workers, positive outcomes will be the result. Nurses show concern everyday by listening to patient’s needs and worries. Nurses are at the forefront for the patient’s interpersonal needs and are advocates for them in many ways. They keep them informed of their plan of care and ensure their personal safety. Altruism is also demonstrated when working with our colleagues and other health care professionals.
Nurses will be cooperative with changing of shifts, schedule changes, and provide teamwork by offering help to colleagues when they are needed (Johnson, Haigh, & Yayes-Bolton, 2007). Altruism is also exhibited by the nurse when he or she puts their patients first by having to sometimes work through or postponing their lunch hour if there is a patient needing immediate care and assistance.
Autonomy
Autonomy is a professional attribute that grants nurses the ability to make clinical judgment and critical decisions that allows them to work independently in the workplace.
Autonomy in nursing is when the nurse takes the sole responsibility for his or her actions when providing care to patients without permission from authority. The nurse is able to make sound, critical decisions based on professional knowledge base and experiences (Iliopoulou &While, 2010). Nurses gain the right to autonomy in their practice by maintaining their competencies and taking responsibility of situations related to their patient care. The more autonomy a nurse achieves, the greater personal career satisfaction leading to overall better patient care and outcomes.
According to Iliopoulou & While (2010), nurses have a greater degree of job satisfaction when they have the ability to work independently by having the responsibility to make autonomous decisions in their patient’s plan of care. Critical care nurses have a great deal of autonomy when providing patient care, especially when caring for the unconscious patient. It is more pronounced when critical care nurses advocate and are responsible for autonomously caring for these special patient populations. Nurses who have more seasoned, professional work experience will have a higher degree of autonomy.
Critical care nurses exhibit autonomy in their daily routine when performing technical tasks or procedures, such as inserting a Foley catheter, titrating vasopressor IV drips, assessing for pain and administering prn pain medications, inserting an IV, or managing an intra-aortic balloon pump.
Human Dignity
Dignity is defined as treating all humans with respect as being a valued individual. This involves beliefs and values to treat someone as being of worth, which is a basic right for all individuals (Irwin, 2011).
It is a responsibility of the nurse to treat all patients with dignity so they will feel respected as a human being. The nurse is considerate and of the patient’s wishes and their dignity is respected. A nurse respecting their patient’s privacy is one example of what a nurse could do to maintain a patient’s dignity and enhance the nurse-patient relationship by gaining their trust. Patients who are treated with dignity have a higher degree of autonomy with decision-making in their plan of care.
Treating someone with human dignity respects all individuals to be treated with a high degree of worth and without discrimination from another human being. Nurses, who treat their patients with dignity, respect the patient’s wishes in the treatment plan, and respect their patients by listening to them. Nurses provide privacy by closing curtains when patient needs privacy, and maintain confidentiality through adhering to HIPPA laws (Irwin, 2011). Patients are provided individualized care, such as the nurse is respecting the patient’s religion.
Culturally appropriate foods are given to patients and religious practices are carried out, such as not administering blood to a known Jehovah Witness patient who is unconscious and severely anemic.
Integrity
Integrity is when a nurse lives up to his or her personal moral code by doing the “right thing”. Integrity is perceived when one acts like a certain person with trust, honesty, and making others come first in any situation (Laabs, 2011). Integrity involves have a deeper sense of what is right and wrong, and acting on what is right according to personal values, morals, and beliefs.
Integrity is a trait that is used to promote moral principles by being honest and trustworthy. When the nurse has integrity he or she has a high level of responsibility and feels obligated to do the right thing, regardless if someone is observing his or her behavior.
One example of a nurse promoting integrity as a BSN student is by avoiding plagiarism and maintaining truthfulness. Such an example is when nursing students are signing the certificate of originality when submitting all assignments. The BSN student performs honest collegiate work without the use of plagiarism.
This is done because students have a deep commitment to the nursing profession by knowing what the moral and ethical thing to do is. Work is done with a feeling of pride about being true to personal beliefs (Langone, 2007). Someone can also demonstrate integrity in their daily life when they are able to admit freely on mistakes, keep promises, and being honest with self and society.
Social Justice
Social justice is the moral concern to treat all individuals equally, by having the fair amount of benefits and obligations when living together with others in society (Hussey, 2011).
It is based on recognizing human rights with equality in all persons in society. Benefits in society are equally accessed and shared among all classes of people who are entitled without discrimination. Nurses encompass leadership qualities and roles to advocate for their patients so that social justice is served. Such an example would include providing healthcare to low income households and making it affordable to access and receive healthcare benefits.
This would then have to be equal for those with average and high incomes to meet social justice. Social justice is a basic human need that includes ways to seek fairness in society by sharing the deserved good and bad resources in life (Hussey, 2011). One of the core values in nursing, social justice is what is there when we choose to advocate for our patients using our personal moral and ethical principles. Specific patient populations are vulnerable, sensitive, and subject to discrimination leaving them unable to defend or advocate for themselves. An example would be the nurse giving the same attention level and treatment to a patient of high social status to one who is not of material means.
